This disclosure is related to a method for determination of carbon dioxide emissions from steam generation systems used to heat a working fluid.
As the world grows more concerned with the emissions of greenhouse gases, and carbon dioxide in particular, there is a growing need to quantify these emissions as accurately as possible so that efforts can be targeted at reducing them. On method of reducing greenhouse gases is to improve existing technologies so that they become more efficient. However, even the best improvements in existing technology can at best result in reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that are of the order of a couple of percent. It is therefore important that the methods used to measure these reductions in emissions are precise enough so that the reductions can be accurately documented. If the methodology employed to determine and document these improvements has a high degree of uncertainty, the value of these improvements will almost certainly be lost.
Existing technologies use either the measurement of carbon dioxide and the flue gas flow rate in the stack or the calculation of carbon dioxide using fuel flow and carbon content in the fuel. In both cases, the measurement of flow yields significant uncertainty, generally greater than about 7% in the calculated carbon dioxide emissions. This is particularly true with solid fuels such as coal. This large uncertainty becomes even more problematic when differences are used to determine the change in carbon dioxide emissions.
It is therefore desirable to have a method that can accurately estimate the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from combustion processes. Only after the quantification of greenhouse emissions is accurately conducted can there be an actual determination of the efficacy of various methods to reduce the emissions of these gases.